News Articles
26th October 2009
Scottish police call for more gays and lesbians to report domestic abuse
(Source: Pinknews.co.uk)
Scottish police are urging more gay and lesbian victims of domestic
violence to come forward.
One thousand incidents of domestic abuse among same-sex couples
were reported in Scotland in the last year but it is thought the true
number of incidents could be as high as 4,000.
To encourage more people to report such crimes, police have now set
up third-party reporting systems and victims can now report crimes online.
Although these reports cannot be used as a basis for prosecution, it is
hoped they will increase confidence in the police.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter McPike of Strathclyde's Domestic Abuse
Task Force told the Scotsman he believed many LGBT people did not
report domestic violence because they were scared of being outed.
He said that although there were 50,000 reported domestic violence
incidents in Scotland last year, only a thousand of these involved lesbian,
gay, bisexual or trans people. It is thought that between six and nine per
cent of the population is gay or bisexual.
He added: "People can now tell us things in confidence. People don't
always want the police turning up at their doors with flashing blue lights.
We need to build up the trust of people in the LGBT community. We want
them to know that we would never take any action that would expose the
victim."
Stonewall research of lesbians has found that one in four have experienced
domestic violence and four out of five who were a victim did not report
incidents to police.
